Do I really need a PRS Studio guitar?

JasonE said:
A call was made between meetings. A deal was struck and a charge was put on my credit card... I will receive tracking information on the guitar today. Here is what is coming my way.

eddiesguitars.com

Paul Reed Smith Studio - Fire Red Burst - Eddie's Guitars

Single Single Hum. Single Single Hum. Classic pup layout. And here is a beauty of one from PRS. This Paul Reed Smith Studio McCarty Fire Red Burst.. This PRS Studio model is a modern take on a traditional single-single-hum guitar. With PRS’s proprietary Narrowfield pickups in the middle and bass...
eddiesguitars.com eddiesguitars.com

Thanks to all of those that enabled me. One thing to note, this is actually the one my wife picked when I showed her the first two. She picked this over the wood library version. I showed her a couple of Aquamarine versions as well and she still liked this one better. I was leaning in that direction and she solidified it.
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My goodness that's one gorgeous guitar.
 
ViperDoc said:
Depends on whether you’ll look at it more than play it.
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I have a few hanging on the wall in the room I work in, which is also my music room. So I will look at them as much I play them.

rockinforJesus said:
So I noticed the Narrowfields have gold or brass pole pieces. Is it just a plating or something else?
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I am not sure what exactly they use. This guitar has hybrid hardware on it. I know the old artist pack gold hardware actually has real gold in it. I don't know if they are still doing that. I don't think I have ever seen any of these gold pole pieces tarnish. I have a set of 57/08 pickups that have gold screws in them and they have never tarnished.
 
JasonE said:
I have a few hanging on the wall in the room I work in, which is also my music room. So I will look at them as much I play them.


I am not sure what exactly they use. This guitar has hybrid hardware on it. I know the old artist pack gold hardware actually has real gold in it. I don't know if they are still doing that. I don't think I have ever seen any of these gold pole pieces tarnish. I have a set of 57/08 pickups that have gold screws in them and they have never tarnished.
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Believe me, I understand the affliction. Ogling at wood is time well spent. TWSS. :eek::p:cool:
 
Tasty, very tasty, sir! Enjoy your newest aquisition.

And it looks a lot like my dark cherry CU22. If it looks about hals as good IRL, it will be georgeous!
 
Gtrbldr said:
Tasty, very tasty, sir! Enjoy your newest aquisition.

And it looks a lot like my dark cherry CU22. If it looks about hals as good IRL, it will be georgeous!
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My CU22 is also done in Dark Cherry Sunburst. I would have bought this guitar in that finish had I found one. It will be interesting to see how it looks next to the DCB. It will arrive tomorrow.
 
It is here! They always look a little different/better in person. The guitar is a little darker in color than it looked in the pictures. It has I nice deepness to the finish. The new nitro also have a bit of a different look to it. They refinished my SC-58 with this same finish but this one has a little different look to it in the way it shines. It may be the color. This one is a lot darker than my SC-58 so that could be it. This one had the warning label on it to let it acclimate before opening it. I pulled the case out of the box and it didn't feel hot. It has been in the state long enough that I knew it was not going to be cold. They didn't put that sticker on the box, at least I don't remember seeing it. I have the box stored so I can check if I really feel the need.

I haven't bought a new PRS guitar in probably 5 or 6 years, maybe. I noticed a couple of things. They changed the cases a little. It isn't a huge change but I noticed it. The internal material is a little different and the outside material feels a bit different too. The second thing I noticed is that they changed what they use for strap buttons. When did they make that change?
 
JasonE said:
It is here! They always look a little different/better in person. The guitar is a little darker in color than it looked in the pictures. It has I nice deepness to the finish. The new nitro also have a bit of a different look to it. They refinished my SC-58 with this same finish but this one has a little different look to it in the way it shines. It may be the color. This one is a lot darker than my SC-58 so that could be it. This one had the warning label on it to let it acclimate before opening it. I pulled the case out of the box and it didn't feel hot. It has been in the state long enough that I knew it was not going to be cold. They didn't put that sticker on the box, at least I don't remember seeing it. I have the box stored so I can check if I really feel the need.

I haven't bought a new PRS guitar in probably 5 or 6 years, maybe. I noticed a couple of things. They changed the cases a little. It isn't a huge change but I noticed it. The internal material is a little different and the outside material feels a bit different too. The second thing I noticed is that they changed what they use for strap buttons. When did they make that change?
Click to expand...
Congrats! Looking forward to the in house pix and tone report!!
 
You all may get a kick out of this.

I was wondering if my wife realized that I stopped asking her, red or blue? I kept quiet about the guitar since it didn't move over the weekend and was going to take longer to get here due to that. It showed up yesterday. I got it out, put the box up in the garage where I keep the boxes for my guitars and then hid the case. I took one of my other guitars off of the wall and put it on a stand in the room. I hung the new guitar on the wall. She had to walk right past it when she came in the room after she got home from work. I kept waiting for her to see it while she was in here talking to me. She didn't notice and was heading out the door. Right after she walked past it I said hey, and she stopped and turned around. I looked over at it and she finally noticed it. She approves! I asked her if she was happy with her dicision for me to get the red one. She said yes. :)

I am telling all of you, I have the best wife in the world!
 
I got a chance to take this beautiful new guitar for a good test drive. I compared it against my 594 with newer 57/08s in it, my Custom 22 with older 57/'08s in it and the guitar that has been my main gigging guitar for a while, a Suhr custom carve top Standard with HSS configuration. Here are some of my thoughts, the good and bad...

The guitar was a bit out of adjustment when it showed up. Interestingly enough, it was in tune but not at 440 right out of the shipping box. It is a beautiful guitar. I tweaked the truss rod about a 1/4 turn and raised the pickups to around factory spec. They were lower than spec. They sound much better raised up to spec. I actually moved them a little closer to get them a little more where I like them. That was all I had to do besides tune it to 440 and it plays and sounds a ton better.

I was honestly worried about a flaw in the grain on the top. I didn't see it in the pictures until after I had paid for the guitar. It is pretty noticeable in the pictures. I figured I would let it show up and see it in person. I am glad I did. It isn't nearly as in your face as it was in the pictures. The guitar is darker in person and is a bit more of a brownish red but still a very nice color.

With the bridge pickup closer it is keeping up with the other guitars I compared it to volume wise. The guitar overall is bright. The bridge pickup is much brighter than the narrowfields. I wasn't fond of these pickups in my 594 and knew I might not like it in this one. That has been confirmed. I have to run the tone all the way down on about 2.5 to get it where I can stand it. This guitar also has a bigger cap on the tone control than most PRS guitars. I would have expected it to darken much sooner than that. With the tone that low when you move to the narrowfields it is too dark. The split tone is good on it. Every other guitar I compared it to was much smoother sounding and showed how bright this guitar is. I ordered a 57/08 for the bridge. I think that will be an improvement. I know they split well too from having them in my other guitars.

It has a nice quack with a clean channel or very, very light breakup. That fades as you add gain. My HSS Suhr killed it in this department. Even with the tapped humbucker combined with the middle pickup. I get a wider variety of tones from the Suhr, which is probably why it has been a main player of mine for a while now. My 594 is my #2. I do like the neck pickup tone. The narrowfields don't handle gain quite as well as I had hoped they would. I like both the single coil in the Suhr and the neck humbucker of the 594 better with gain. However the narrowfields are still usable to me and offer something different than I have in any of my other guitars.

This guitar weighs 8lbs even. I know that from the listing on the dealer's web site. My 594 is a little thicker and weights a little more. I could feel that when swapping between them. I don't know the weights of any of my other guitars. I never cared about that. I just know from swapping between them that my CU22 and Suhr are both a decent bit lighter than the Studio.

I like the neck carve on it. It is around the same as my CU22. My CU22 has a chunky wide fat neck on it. This Pattern neck feels a little chunkier than others I have played. I am wondering if the frets are bigger and that is what makes it feel thicker. They look to be a little thicker than was is in my CU22 and the necks feel similar. I know my CU22 usually feels a little thicker than most Pattern necks. My 594 is just a tad bit thicker feeling than the Studio. The playability of the Studio felt like home once I made the small tweaks. Before I tweaked it I was hitting the middle pickup with my pick. I actually raised the middle pickup a bit but don't hit it now, go figure.

Overall it is a nice guitar. I will hold on to it and swap the bridge pickup to a 57/08. I think I will gel with it more after that. It isn't going to unseat my #1 but I can see it staying in the rotation of guitars I have out and play. I will probably play around with tweaking the narrowfields a bit more up and down to see if I find a spot that I like them in better. I will also pull my DGT out and compare it to that before changing the pickup since someone on here recently asked how the Studio compares to the DGT. I feel safe in saying that I am pretty sure I will prefer the tone of the DGT bridge pickup over the 58/15 LT in the Studio. There is a 50/50 chance I may prefer the DGT neck pickup over the narrowfield in the Studio too. It will be an interesting comparison.
 
JasonE said:
I got a chance to take this beautiful new guitar for a good test drive. I compared it against my 594 with newer 57/08s in it, my Custom 22 with older 57/'08s in it and the guitar that has been my main gigging guitar for a while, a Suhr custom carve top Standard with HSS configuration. Here are some of my thoughts, the good and bad...

The guitar was a bit out of adjustment when it showed up. Interestingly enough, it was in tune but not at 440 right out of the shipping box. It is a beautiful guitar. I tweaked the truss rod about a 1/4 turn and raised the pickups to around factory spec. They were lower than spec. They sound much better raised up to spec. I actually moved them a little closer to get them a little more where I like them. That was all I had to do besides tune it to 440 and it plays and sounds a ton better.

I was honestly worried about a flaw in the grain on the top. I didn't see it in the pictures until after I had paid for the guitar. It is pretty noticeable in the pictures. I figured I would let it show up and see it in person. I am glad I did. It isn't nearly as in your face as it was in the pictures. The guitar is darker in person and is a bit more of a brownish red but still a very nice color.

With the bridge pickup closer it is keeping up with the other guitars I compared it to volume wise. The guitar overall is bright. The bridge pickup is much brighter than the narrowfields. I wasn't fond of these pickups in my 594 and knew I might not like it in this one. That has been confirmed. I have to run the tone all the way down on about 2.5 to get it where I can stand it. This guitar also has a bigger cap on the tone control than most PRS guitars. I would have expected it to darken much sooner than that. With the tone that low when you move to the narrowfields it is too dark. The split tone is good on it. Every other guitar I compared it to was much smoother sounding and showed how bright this guitar is. I ordered a 57/08 for the bridge. I think that will be an improvement. I know they split well too from having them in my other guitars.

It has a nice quack with a clean channel or very, very light breakup. That fades as you add gain. My HSS Suhr killed it in this department. Even with the tapped humbucker combined with the middle pickup. I get a wider variety of tones from the Suhr, which is probably why it has been a main player of mine for a while now. My 594 is my #2. I do like the neck pickup tone. The narrowfields don't handle gain quite as well as I had hoped they would. I like both the single coil in the Suhr and the neck humbucker of the 594 better with gain. However the narrowfields are still usable to me and offer something different than I have in any of my other guitars.

This guitar weighs 8lbs even. I know that from the listing on the dealer's web site. My 594 is a little thicker and weights a little more. I could feel that when swapping between them. I don't know the weights of any of my other guitars. I never cared about that. I just know from swapping between them that my CU22 and Suhr are both a decent bit lighter than the Studio.

I like the neck carve on it. It is around the same as my CU22. My CU22 has a chunky wide fat neck on it. This Pattern neck feels a little chunkier than others I have played. I am wondering if the frets are bigger and that is what makes it feel thicker. They look to be a little thicker than was is in my CU22 and the necks feel similar. I know my CU22 usually feels a little thicker than most Pattern necks. My 594 is just a tad bit thicker feeling than the Studio. The playability of the Studio felt like home once I made the small tweaks. Before I tweaked it I was hitting the middle pickup with my pick. I actually raised the middle pickup a bit but don't hit it now, go figure.

Overall it is a nice guitar. I will hold on to it and swap the bridge pickup to a 57/08. I think I will gel with it more after that. It isn't going to unseat my #1 but I can see it staying in the rotation of guitars I have out and play. I will probably play around with tweaking the narrowfields a bit more up and down to see if I find a spot that I like them in better. I will also pull my DGT out and compare it to that before changing the pickup since someone on here recently asked how the Studio compares to the DGT. I feel safe in saying that I am pretty sure I will prefer the tone of the DGT bridge pickup over the 58/15 LT in the Studio. There is a 50/50 chance I may prefer the DGT neck pickup over the narrowfield in the Studio too. It will be an interesting comparison.
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Thanks For Sharing Your Findings. I Am Not Much Of A Single Coil Player And As Much As I Want Too Branch Out And Try Other Guitars Like This (Or A Paul's Guitar) My Concern Always Goes Back To Pickups And What If I Don't Like Them?
 
Bogner said:
Thanks For Sharing Your Findings. I Am Not Much Of A Single Coil Player And As Much As I Want Too Branch Out And Try Other Guitars Like This (Or A Paul's Guitar) My Concern Always Goes Back To Pickups And What If I Don't Like Them?
Click to expand...
That was a big concern for me on this guitar and the reason I stayed away from every guitar with narrowfields in it for so long. They have honestly not blown my socks off but I don't hate them either. They really are their own thing and I think I need more time to really discover where they shine the most. They do sound very good with a clean or very slightly broken up sound.

Thankfully I was prepared on the 58/15 LT pickup before I even bought the guitar. I knew there was a good possibility that I was not going to like it. The good news is that I know for sure I will like the 57/08 I ordered for it so that fixes that issue for me. It also backed me away from the idea of putting them back in my 594 to see if my tastes had changed enough to like them in that guitar. I know now that if I do that, I will just pull them back out and put the 57/08s back in it. It really does perform well with those in there so there is no need to mess with that.
 
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